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Old 2006-01-09, 9:10am
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firefreak firefreak is offline
Retired to the flame
 
Join Date: Jan 05, 2006
Location: Central Illinois
Posts: 248
Default Silver and gold fuming basics

First of all, do not try this without good ventilation!! If you dont have a hood and at least 350 cfm fan (or more) with make up air, dont even think about fuming.This will work with all torches from a minor up. ( I have never tried it on a one gas torch. Silver might work, but gold has to have a lot of heat to fume)

Fuming Silver and gold, The basics

First start with pure metals (.999 if possible) I use 1 oz silver ingot from jewelry store. For gold, I found a piece 8 inch's long of 24 karat fine chain at same jeweler.( make sure it's 24 karat. (gold needs to be as pure as possible to fume well)

Prepare a 12 to 14 inch 6-8 mm rod by warming up very end and putting a small dent in top side. ( I use quartz, but boro will work)

Take silver with tweezers, heat up 1/4 inch of ingot. Using glass shears, cut a 2-3 mm strip from ingot. Set aside to cool. Once cool, cut a piece off strip about the size of one half of a BB. (about 2 x 2 mm). Silver strip should cut OK when cool.

For gold, I cut 3-5 links off chain.(very fine chain)

Now, pick up the rod you prepared, using tweezers, put the BB of silver (links of gold) into the dent you made on the rod. Heat up end of rod till till metal melt into small ball. This should hold metal to rod.

Let's fume! Warm piece to be fumed till it has slight glow. Keep turning in last third of flame.
Silver: Place end of rod with silver on top near the end of the "candle" of the flame. When it warms up to the point that it begins to sparkle, you are fuming! Keep piece turning, and "bounce" the end of the rod in and out of the flame. Sliver fumes at a med temp, so you have to keep cooling and reheating fairly fast to keep the process going. You will see the honey yellow color start to appear on you piece. The longer you fume, the darker the color will become, until it turns white. Once you like the color, bring the piece into the working area of the flame, and melt in the fume. Some silver will burn back off, thats normal. you will get the hang of how much to put on for the desired end result. Or you can encase it right away. ( makes a cool effect)

Gold: takes a lot more heat to fume! using a forceful tight flame, begin as with the silver. Once piece is warm, bring the gold into the very tip of a candle (should just touch the end of cone)Leave it there. When The gold starts to "dance" around on the rod you should see color start to show on your piece. (great purple!) the gold has to stay in the cone to fume. ( no bounce like with silver) Again, the longer you fume the darker and richer the color. You can go all the way to gold plate. Melt in as before. Gold does not burn off like silver, so WYSIWYG.

For fun, put dots of clear close(2-3 mm apart) together all over the piece. melt in really well. When you melt it into a ball, it gives a neat honeycomb effect.
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Working with a Red Rocket,Red Max,Natty hand torch-- and tanked oxy from a Homefill system
Bryan M
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